Feeding The Hungry & Food Waste: Out Of Site, Out Of Mind?
Again, the New Hampshire Food Bank is putting out a call for help. It doesn’t take much for one to realize the crisis at hand. Wasn’t it just a few months ago their shelves were empty, restored and emptied again? Residents plagued by high fuel costs are joining the food pantry lines in record numbers and it seems as if things are only getting worse. The pinch is being felt by those of every class and most are no longer walking around with an “It won’t happen to me” attitude. It’s happening to everyone, and this dire situation does not discriminate.
Now, I am by no means a number cruncher or a statistical expert yet it doesn’t take more than a third grade education to understand the numbers of hunger versus the numbers of annual food waste. The following facts should astound us:
“More than 40 percent of all food produced in America is not eaten, according to research by former University of Arizona anthropologist Timothy Jones. That amounts to more than 29 million tons of food waste each year, or enough to fill the Rose Bowl every three days. Nationwide, food scraps make up 17 percent of what we send to landfills. The average American wastes more than half a pound of food per day.”
Financially, wasted food costs America more than $100 billion annually, says the University of Arizona’s Jones. (The USDA’s most recent estimate on the cost of food waste — $96 billion — is 10 years old.) Closer to home, the average four-person household wastes about $600 of food each year.
School Children waste about $2 billion of taxpayer dollars through the National School Lunch Program.
American restaurants throw away more than 6,000 tons of food.
The New Hampshire Food Bank website supplies a 2005 Hunger Study (although this years 2007-2008 trend has probably changed the following numbers quite significantly).
The current study serves as an authoritative source of information on private, domestic hunger relief. The data we collected will help inform the public and policy makers about the magnitude and scope of the hunger problem in the United States.
Key findings for New Hampshire:
28% of the members of households served by the NHFB are children under 18.
13% of the members of households are elderly.
35% of households include at least one working adult.
55% have incomes below the federal poverty level
68 % are food insecure.
42% must choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel.
45% had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care.
72% of food pantries, 54% of soup kitchens and 24% of shelters reported an increase in the number of clients who visit their emergency food programs.
Food Banks are by far the most important source of food for the agencies, accounting for 46% of the food used by pantries, 28% of soup kitchens' food, and 32% of shelter's food.
If you haven’t picked your chin up off of the floor, do so now, and let’s get to the point. If the average family of four wastes $600.00 a year on food waste and the New Hampshire food bank can provide four meals for $1.00, than it is mathematically correct to assume that if the average family of four could find a way to reduce food waste and donate the $600.00 than each family of four in the state could supply 2,400 meals per year. Now times that by the actual number of households and the food shortage is solved and then some!
Of course, this may sound simple, but it actually requires the profound dedication of each and every household in the state to make a major dent in the problem. I really believe that the time has come for each and every person to take responsibility for our fellow man. Long gone are the days when the government could be relied upon and now it is up to us. A Monitor reader recently sent a letter to the editor, simply put…“share some of your stimulus check with the food bank”. Right on! Send just $20.00 and supply 80 meals in doing so. If you really want to make that $20.00 worth it, save the twenty by cutting out unnecessary items off of your weekly food list. No weekly ice cream for one month equals about $20.00. Could you sacrifice that indulgence for the warm and fuzzy feeling of helping your fellow man? I challenge you to try. Actually, I beg you to do so. In a time when we, as Americans fight for the right to keep the word God in our Country’s motto, maybe we should consider giving up that fight and changing our motto to…”If you aren’t part of the solution than you are part of the problem” A big dose of guilt never hurt anyone; it’s quite motivating actually. I know, I was raised a Catholic!
The real nitty gritty here is educating ourselves on food waste and how to reduce it. The EPA provides a useful resource with its Food Waste Recovery Hierarchy. Also, Jonathan Bloom is a journalist writing a book on wasted food in America. When he’s not combing through the discount produce rack, he’s blogging on the topic at Wasted Food. Revolutionary groups like Food Not Bombs are on the forefront of feeding the homeless yet are often arrested for doing so because most states have laws against feeding the homeless. Check your local laws and fight for the right to feed anyone who is hungry! No laws should ever prevent a person from a meal. Schools need to start educating our children about the food they waste at lunch time. Children are our future and also the tenderest of hearts when it comes to a cause. Really the list goes on and on; no one group is responsible for the overall problem of food waste, but everyone should be responsible for the absolute solution.
The time is now. For every one person who doesn’t do something dozens more suffer. What will you do for your fellow man? I challenge you to look inside your refrigerator, freezer and cupboards to search for expired foods. Estimate the value of each item (including leftover dinners, you know the ones with mold on them) and add up the total; times that by every week of the year and you will see, that you too are a resounding statistic and that you too are part of the problem and not part of the solution. When I did this, I was shocked into sadness by my contribution to the problem. I have started to take a proactive stance with our weekly shopping and even though my eight year old is disgusted beyond belief that “mom never buys anything good from the store anymore” I am assured that my family will not starve and I am saving us money; a portion of which will go straight to the Food Bank!
Growing up in a family as large as I did, I am skilled in the art of reviving leftovers. There are many websites and cookbooks out there that can teach even the most challenged cooks how to use leftover dinners. Research! Research, Research!
As for the politics behind the above subjects, which I know has its’ major contributing factors, well, I’ll leave that piece to Bill Bunker!
NOTE* I am experiencing technical difficulties, and am not able to provide links. Please bear with me while I resolve the issue.
UPDATE* I am still not able to get my hyperlinks to attach (I have never had this problem before) Here are the links for you to copy and paste into your browser in the mean time:
NH Food bank 2005 Hunger Reort: http://www.nhfoodbank.org/Pages/Hunger/Study.html
EPA Food Waste Recovery Hierarchy:
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/organics/fd-hier.htm
Jonathan Bloom's blog Wasted Food:
http://www.wastedfood.com/
Food Not Bombs:
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/
Bill, I knew you'd be the
Bill,
I knew you'd be the first to reply and I am sure glad you did! It is a shame to think that food pantries would reply to a donation by saying, "our clients are sick of bagels". Yet, you bring up a good point! Are those who are homeless or starving really that bad off? When I lived in Miami Beach years ago, I noticed a huge population of homeless (why not, it's warm most of the year and Florida is home to many homeless)anyway, I was living on nothing (just enough to pay the rent, really) but I fed the homeless whenever I could. None of them ever complained when I baked them the same bread everyday or gave them bologna for a week. They appreciated it and some of them gave me items in return. To this day, I still have a quartz crystal on a braided twine rope that I recieved from a man named Cal. When I would take my dog for a walk, any number of the homeless would see me and walk with me, just for company. Some afternoons I'd hit the beach and again, any number of the homeless would sit with me and chat for hours. They appreciated what I did for them yet in the end, I appreciated them more. Eventually it would seem that my young adult dream of being on my own and living in a paradise like Miami beach would fall short....before I could fall completley out of control, it was my homeless friends who convinced me to leave and go back to my family no matter what caused me to leave them in the first place. There I was feeding and looking after them, yet it was their advice that sent me home...and never have I experienced the sense of nothingness that they live with everyday. I am forever in debt to them, and whether they have survived or not, they are always in my heart. That story is the biggest part of me that drives me to pay it forward!!!!!!
When a pantry complains about repatition than they are being greety. Ask any homelesss person if they would eat bagels for a week and I bet they say yes!!!! Thanks Bill for the complements on the blog...this is going to be my lifes works...I have spent years deciding who I was and why I was here...I know now...you all haven't seen the last of me in the fight on hunger!!!!!
Tracy M
PS
Bill,
I forgot to thank you for the works, past and present you do for the the homeless/hungry. Although nowadays, being hungry doesn't have anything to do with being homeless, yet about trying to keep your home and feed your family!!! This I feel is affecting every class...this is where I believe that politics does play a very important roll! You are the man to bring up the effects that seem to have hampster wheeled us as a nation...that's what you are good at:)
Tracy M
More food for though
Here is some food for thought for restaurateur's, cafeteria operators (including schools) and others in the retail food business.
Tracy, the cost of a meal prepared by a restaurant is around 25%-35% of the sale price. Imagine if 10 local Concord area restaurants donated $100 worth of food each to the food bank or charitable organization every week. That is $1000 in dollar value of food but it would cost a food establishment only about $30 per restaurant.
There have to be at the very least, 100 eateries. So five times per year each establishment would donate food and it would cost each of them $300 to do so. Rotating turns would result in a variety of food and a good press story as well.
This builds good will and it is tax deductible. Their real cost after taxes might be $200.
That would certainly take care of a large part of the hunger at food pantry's and kitchens around the area.
Tracy, you should organize this. What is $200 spread over 52 weeks....Just $4 per week. That might be a nice project for you to work on. I believe there would be those who would say they could not afford it but a coalition of food establishments feeding the hungry would be a unique and outstanding initiative.
Just a thought if you wanted to pursue this I would be willing to help you do the math.
B
Donations
Tracy;
I was involved in numerous organizations back in NH, and we would always try to donate to the homeless or needy. The restrictions placed on donors and what they wish to donate can be restrictive. We tried to donate plates of sandwiches which were left over from a large fund raiser. They would not accept them, because they were not individually wrapped. The same logic applied when we tried to donate a large turkey dinner. Again, not individually wrapped portions. Unfortunately, it's easier to donate clothing than food.
I'm not defending the organizations which try to feed the homeless and those in need. However, from their perspective, some times they don't have the space or refrigeration to house some donations. The people who work the food kitchens are often volunteers who work one to two time per week, and the organization needs to make the food preparation and distribution follow a process that is easy, and that every one can learn quickly.
This is a huge issue, and one that deserves everyone's attention, even if our current fuel price crunch dies off. We need to be accountable as individuals for what we eat, and what we throw away. And it wouldn't hurt our schools to install a sense of giving-back to the community through working at a food bank.
Susan
Some Food For Thought
Tracy,
Nice blog and not one that I would necessarily have a political spin on. I can, however tell you some good stories about wasted food.
In the food industry there is a tremendous amount of food waste from over produced food that does not sell to food that is just not quality enough to serve to the public in the end.
I have been involved in many donations over the years and many roadblocks are initiated by many of the groups involved.
I remember working for a bagel company and we took our leftover bagels (about 120) per day to several food pantries. It reached a point with one kitchen that she called and asked if we had anything else to offer because her 'clients' were getting sick of bagels. I had to chuckle because we had bread and she did not want anything to do with bread products.
I have also run into roadblocks with donating obsolete inventory which a restaurant would no longer use on it's menu. A few years back I had large containers of pickles and olives and a food pantry manager asked: "what could I possibly do with that kind of food". Thoughts raced through my head like: "if someone is hungry enough it might be an added feature to their meal."
I experienced the same situation in donating used goods and a friend of the family had some handcrafted brand new items that she made and was told by a pantry that they only accepted sealed brand name items.
Finally, I worked for a popcorn company a while back and we tried to donate that. Once again, the food pantries did not want it.
My personal opinion was that they were being picky. I would imagine that they would probably not refuse that kind of food today.
Another company I worked for we put together care packages once per week and donated about $100 retail value of food to charity every week.
With my present company we have a program for my clients take to churches and they make meals for charities. Recently one client built meals at her kitchen for single moms through a church. It was good PR for her and it fed lots of single moms.
Your blog points out to the majority of us who are fortunate to have enough food to be thankful and to help out.
I would urge restaurants and other food operations out there to donate their leftover staged food and even donate $100 retail value of food to pantries. It would take a handful of them to help out and make a huge impact.
Good blog Tracy...no politics to mention although I appreciate your deference on that point.